Wayne White: Organic Remains of a Former World / New Paintings / 2005

December 7, 2005
Erin Kermanikian

May 7 – June 4, 2005 Reception for the artist: Saturday May 7th, 5 – 8pm

Western Project is proud to present an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles artist, Wayne White. This complex set of works is entitled, Organic RemainsOf A Former World, suggesting the rise of a new world from the fertile ashes of an older regime. Now painting across multiple old lithographs, White has made a quantum leap in his work; morphing his vivid surrealism into a psychedelic linguistic cubism.

Having worked in television and music video, White understands the nature and construct of illusion. It is his cross-pollinating of historic and contemporary space(s), bonded with humor that creates shadows of knowledge and sparks of wisdom. White’s work has always utilized the language of the streets – common phrases and vernacular tidbits; cussing, calling, cajoling – a little southern voodoo - all Americana. Sometimes mistaken for being a text artist, White has always been more akin to a musician, using old instruments (vintage framed lithographs from the 1960’s and 70’s), and writing melodies (painting architectural phrases) – continuing a kind of oral/visual history with recycled materials. The paintings are a type of blues/country/jazz – a Robert Johnson/Merle Haggard/Miles Davis mix – sentences as stories (All My People Sleep In A Mountain), or abstract suggestions (DangerousBig Baby), mirroring a myriad of floating associations that pulse into unexpected meaning. White’s paintings are pure American history – current images of what it feels like in this world, at this time, with smudges and stains from yesterday, punked out in a tour de force of genuine imagination.

The artist has shown extensively in the US: Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Memphis, Miami, and recently in Naples, Italy and Stockholm. For further information and images, please contact the gallery at 310-838